#2 “You ain’t all that”
Tennessee 22, Georgia 3, October 10, 1998
“Get off me you fool! Didn’t you see my highlights from last week?”
The letdown game is the college football equivalent of running over a yellow jacket nest on the riding lawn mower. You’re enjoying a sunny afternoon of yard work on your own Walden Pond, at peace with the knowledge that at the end of the day a good piece of work will be successfully completed, after which you’ll crack open a cool one on the patio and savor a job well done. Then suddenly you’re running across the yard, ripping off your clothes and screaming in terror, after which you spend the rest of the day soaking in a tub full of bleach in agonizing pain.
It was a near-run thing in the decision to rank this game ahead of the Auburn 45, Georgia 34, November 14, 1997 debacle the prior year. Auburn absolutely steamrolled the Dawgs after our anomaly victory over Florida two weeks prior. Auburn 24, Georgia 10, November 16, 1985 referenced in #3 above is also in this category as the Plainsmen exposed Georgia after their great victory over #1 Florida. Both made me absolutely sick.
That this was a blowout loss of a favored team on their home field, in which Georgia was not competitive, after a victory in Baton Rouge (which is by definition a great victory) makes this a distinctive letdown loss in the annals of Georgia football (CMR’s 2007 team’s redemption after the disaster in Knoxville last year mitigates a similarly bitter letdown defeat) . But UT 1998 stands above the others in agony for another particular reason: Gameday. The hype surrounding Gameday’s first and only visit to Athens after Georgia’s improbable win in Baton Rouge the preceding Saturday was surreal, and the total embarrassment of the game fairly well ruined the season. And any mention since then of Gameday coming to Athens revives the juicy memory of the humiliation–any thinking bulldog never wants Gameday anwhere near this state again. There were terrible, terrible weeks to endure after the clock ran out on this game.
Honorable Mention
Ole Miss 21, Georgia 17, October 9, 1976–a second straight loss to Ole Miss, one week after arguably Georgia’s biggest win of the Seventies, the shutout of Bama in Athens.
Tennesee 19 Georgia 14, October 9, 2004–this was a rough one after the previous week’s blowout of LSU. We were never out of the game, but we didn’t get any breaks, and everything seemed to go wrong at the worst possible time. Reminiscent of the 2007 loss to Steve Spurrier.
Kentucky 16, Georgia 10, October 22, 1988–this one really hurt and seemingly came from nowhere. Dooley’s strongest team post-Herschel must have been looking ahead to Florida and absolutely laid an egg.
Ole Miss 31, Georgia 27, November 23, 1996–Donnan seemed to have at least one humiliating letdown game in every season, and the loss to the Rebs at home after the glorious 4OT victory at Auburn was particularly enraging.
#1 “Columbia”
South Carolina 21, Georgia 10, September 9, 2000
How many times did I beat Florida, Auburn and Tech in 3 seasons?
Having great expectations dashed in early September by an upset loss is the worst of the worst. August is a special time of year. The anticipation of the coming season is wonderful regardless of your team’s prospects. This could be a special year, you know. We have a lot of talent, have you noticed? And how about that recruiting class! We are going to surprise some people, just like we did back in ‘80. Yeah pal, you’ll be surprised…at how much life BLOWS when you’re headed West on I-20 with a Cock up your backside.
I was traveling for work that Saturday and had the distinct displeasure of listening to Larry’s call of the second half on the drive back to Atlanta. Months of anticipation, predictions of SEC Championships, and the ridiculous amount of talent on the team, make Georgia’s collapse in Columbia, for any thinking Bulldog, the most bitter defeat of a Georgia team in recent memory. Columbia surpasses all others because the loss transcends the rivalry, the 2000 season, and the entire Jim Donnan/Quincy Carter era as a monument to the 19 years of futility from 1983 until 2002. Will we ever make it back to the Promised Land? By the time of Columbia, players were appearing on the roster who had not been born the last time we made it to New Orleans. The era was littered with highly touted teams that failed to deliver, and no team was more highly touted in the 83-01 era than the 2000 team, and no team failed to deliver more completely on the field than in Columbia. Any mention of Columbia is met with groans by the Bulldog faithful; Columbia is the epitome of disaster in the minds of the Bulldog Nation. Ask anybody. And that the defining defeat of the era had come against the lowly Poultry is fitting.
And any thinking Bulldog has that afternoon at Hell’s Screen Porch firmly in the front of the mind as we head into Fall 2008 with a team whose preseason hype has already dwarfed that of Donnan’s final effort.
Honorable Mention
Wake Forest 22, Georgia 21, September 15, 1979–this was a shocking upset that set the tone for a dreadful season for Georgia, including blowout losses to Virginia and Auburn at home, as well as losses to el Pollo Carolina and Clem’s Son. I didn’t even know what a Wake Forest was entering the stadium. I remember distinctly fans in the stands laughing when the Wake players slapped their thigh pads in unison before kickoffs, like some pee wee team. Well nobody’s laughing now, Pal.
South Carolina 23, Georgia 21, September 4, 1993–after 19 wins in the prior 2 years, many Bulldog fans were hopeful that we had elevated to the point of a Winning Program, meaning that a solid coaching regime was in place, and we’d find the talent among the newcomers to fill the holes left by departing seniors and contend year in, year out, as Winning Programs do. The Chickens crushed those dreams on the final play of the game, and the next week’s blowout in Knoxville confirmed our worst fears.
One final note: of course this list includes no basketball games. Georgia basketball fans are, by definition, in a constant state of bitterness, win or lose. Even when things are going well, you know the whole program is going to be nuked when it finally climbs back to the cusp of greatness. How many examples would you like?
